SPOKANE — Spring may be the most delicious time of the year for taking a hike in Eastern Washington.

Ski resorts are closing because even skiers are losing their appetite for snow. It’s time to feast on colors bursting from the winter-weary lowlands before summer bakes the landscape to a golden brown.

Hikers who relish the mountains this early in the season will need snowshoes, but they’ll find rewards for their efforts. Mount Spokane State Park Manager Steve Christensen said his favorite time for snowshoeing the mountain’s ridges and glades is in the few weeks after the downhill ski resort closes.

“It gets very quiet up here all of a sudden,” he said. “You can really cover ground on the spring snow, the weather can be great and you’re not likely to see a soul.”

But this also is the season that sees buttercups and grass widows livening up the floors of lowland Ponderosa pine forests. The showy golden bouquets of arrowleaf balsamroot soon will be decorating trails from the South Hill Bluffs below High Drive and shores of the Spokane River through Riverside State Park to the scablands of Lincoln County.

Whitman County’s Kamiak Butte is snow-free and wildflowers are sprouting. This county park east of Colfax rises from the Palouse to 3,641 feet. It features about 3 miles of trails and eye-candy views over the wavelike Palouse hills — a scene that changes every month with the seasons of the farm fields below.

The 446,000 acres of land managed in big blocks west of Spokane by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management are at their best for hikers.

And this may be the best time of year to visit the 13,000-acre BLM’s Escure Ranch area south of Sprague, Lincoln County. The scabland area is green, Rock Creek is flowing nicely over Towell Falls, wildflowers are blooming and the cheatgrass hasn’t turned brown and full of spears.

The Spokane Mountaineers and other hiking groups have group trips scheduled to Escure and other BLM trails at Fishtrap and Hog Canyon lakes, Crab Creek and Twin Lakes — all good choices this time of year.

Hikers visiting Spokane don’t have to leave town for great spring-wildflower strolls along the Spokane River in Riverside State Park. Start from the Bowl and Pitcher area, cross the footbridge over the river and head upstream or downstream to your heart’s content.

Or go to the Ninemile area of the park and hike in and out of Deep Creek Canyon to the Pine Bluffs. You’re likely to see white-throated swifts twittering off the basalt cliff walls, flowers blooming on the slopes and scenic views that reward the climb from the canyon up to Pine Bluff.

Look down the power line from the bluff and see if the osprey nest is occupied.

The Spokane County Conservation Futures program has preserved more than 7,200 acres of open spaces, most of which are ripe for hiking in April.

The Spokane Mountaineers, with nearly a century of experience in hiking the best routes in this area, have spring group hikes scheduled for Conservation Futures areas such as the Rocks of Sharon, Saltese Uplands, Palisades Park, McKenzie, McLellan and Slavin conservation areas.

Trust their judgment.

In the Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, area, top spring hikes include Tubbs Hill from the Coeur d’Alene Resort and Mineral Ridge out of Wolf Lodge Bay.

Hikers willing to commit more time and travel to spring hikes east of the Cascades should consider:

• Steamboat Rock and Northrup Canyon in Steamboat Rock State Park.

• North Fork Asotin Creek in the Asotin Creek State Wildlife Recreation Area south of Asotin.

• Ancient Lakes in the Quincy State Wildlife Recreation Area near Quincy.

• Yakima Skyline Trail in the L.T. Murray State Wildlife Recreation Area near Yakima.